To ask for your cringeworthy interview experiences where you were the interviewer?

[AlternativePerspective]

A friend was just telling me about the interviews they were holding recently. One candidate was apparently awful. Kept interrupting, threw a pile of certificates down on the desk when asked about his qualification, referred to people with disabilities (it was in a disability focussed organisation) as “mentals” and he wanted to help them because he was sure they aren’t stupid.

Then when he had the rejection he has sent numerous emails insisting he should have been employed.

The story is so horrifying that I wonder whether he was deliberately that objectionable. From their end I do know it really happened, but could it be he was being like that deliberately? Or …?

So, as an interviewer, have you ever conducted any awful, cringeworthy interviews?

‘Honestly, I wouldn't know what to answer. Whatever you say, it's gonna look bad, i.e. "I would want to be a cat.’

you’re supposed to answer something like ‘ a tiger because I’m fierce and strong and competitive blah blah blah’ not ‘a panda cos I like to sit around all day scratching my arse, and I’m REALLY picky about what I eat’

same with the car - a Ferrari or a Bugatti, not the Pope mobile or a Robin reliant

As for ‘weakness’ there really is only one answer ( and it’s not I hate people, or Machiavelli is my role model, or I fart a lot and steal colleagues yoghurts out of the fridge)
its… drumroll…I’m almost too dedicated to my work…

I was once sent interview questions in advance and googled them to find that they were from a website that suggested 'good interview questions'.

I figured if they could not be proactive enough to set their own questions I could not be proactive enough to make my own answers so I googled the answers.

(Law firm)

I got the job. It was like phoning it in but TBH it was probably a mistake because I soon found out that my line manager (and interviewer) was fucking lazy in every way.

😂

I had a bizarre interview.

The job I'd just left worked alongside the MOD. The Interviewer said "oh, you can't talk about that then!" and then spoke to me about cats for an hour.

I got the job.

I think some interviewers forget that the interviewees are silently interviewing them and the organisation just as much as the other way round!

It definitely wouldn’t be if I was interviewing you! I want to see some reflection and evidence that you have taken steps to mitigate your weaknesses (which everyone has).

So if you issues are time management, I want to hear that you realised you were taking too much on because you don’t like saying no, but are now trying to only take on projects you have time to achieve, and ensure you prioritise urgent projects/have milestones, etc. If you have a tendency to act rashly, evidence you now make a point of stopping, thinking, and making sure you have all the information to hand before making a decision.

Obviously the examples need to be things like “I was a few days late with the annual report”, not “I took on too much and a flagship project failed, causing my company significant public embarrassment”.

• Young man who sprawled across the desk and mumbled a few words in response (obviously doing a Spud)

• The woman who was being interviewed for an admin job but walked out when we asked her to do a very simple IT test (open word document, write something simple, save and close document,) and explained she would then be interviewed. She said it was too stressful and she'd been expecting a quick informal chat.

• The auditor candidate who was very proud of knowing lots of shortcuts and which bits of an audit could be skipped over/falsified, so completed them really quickly. Which he thought was a positive.

I've also experienced a couple of male candidates who try to pretend I'm not there.

In an old job interviewing graduates we had a very impressive candidate - thoughtful intelligent answers and able to bring in relevant ideas from his lived experience. He would have got the role several times over.

However we used to send all the applicants for lunch with our current graduates so they could find out from them what it was like to work for us and ask any questions from a few friendly faces. Instead he asked one of our graduates out and when she said no he assaulted her. Really shocking.

Not unless you’re on the apprentice! It doesn’t matter what you chose it’s the rationale and thought process that your judged on.

Same with using perfectionist or workaholic as a “weakness”. It’s an awful cliché and I’d cringe so hard for anyone who said that.

Ooooh it didn’t quite tweet. Last message was in response to the tiger/Ferrari answer.

I'd be a dog. I could lie around all day and lick my balls between being fed and patted.

Three lots of interviews I've done in six weeks. Had some bizarre ones, weird ones, awful ones and good ones. But 2/3 don't turn up and 4 of the five people have been poached by other departments while mine us still running short.

In fact the more I think about it, the more I want to be a dog 😁

At the completion of a fairly poor interview the candidate took my hands and looked me in the eye, and told me quite forcefully '
"You HAVE you give me this job, I am the best you will see, don't interview anyone else, I will see you here on Monday". She emailed our HR department about 30 seconds after she left saying I had agreed she could have the job and they could send her contract over immediately.
She didn't get the job

I was the branch manager of a high st bank back in the day. We advertised a junior counter staff roles and the advert was very specific about the hours required (it included every second Saturday and a bi-monthly evening shift to cover a local cattle market ).

One very young applicant told me very plainly that she wouldn't be able to work any Saturdays during the football season as she followed the local team and wasn't prepared to miss any matches and the same applied of her evening rota clashed with a midweek match. She seemed surprised when I said we might find it difficult to accomodate that. It seemed rude to say 'Well, that rules you out then!' so I asked her what had attracted her to apply for the position. She thought for a bit and then said very unenthusiastically 'My mum thought it would be a good idea'. We wrapped things up after that.

Unsurprisingly, it was her mum who called up for feedback after we sent out the standard "your application was unsuccessful at this time' letter.

Incidentally, this was over 30 years ago. I left the institution not long after that but the two youngsters I recruited in that round are still there, holding very high positions at HO. I'm proud of them.

Similar. We share a brand name with a company that used to make a well known product. We split over a decade ago and have nothing to do with this product. But a guy I interviewed started talking at length about this product. even minimal research would have told him this has nothing with what we do.